May 9, 2013

Ischia is an island located between Capri and Napoli. We went there today to visit La Mortella garden (the place of myrtles), a lush tropical paradise developed by English composer William Walton and his Argentinian wife, Susana in the 1950s.
We got to Ischia (pronounced Is-kia) by fast ferry from Sorrento.
From Ischia’s harbour, it was only a short bus ride to the two-hectare garden that occupies a ravine.
The garden is considered one of ... Read More …

Dan Hamhuis has played in four previous world hockey championships. It sounded Thursday like he was about to make it No. 5.
Hamhuis confirmed that he has had discussions with Hockey Canada about joining the Canadian team at the world championships currently being held in Sweden and Finland.
“Yeah, there has been a little bit of discussion and I am just waiting to hear back,” Hamhuis said. “Just with the time change it has been ... Read More …

The NHL salary cap is falling by about 10 per cent next season, but Vancouver Canucks season-ticket prices are rising by as much as five per cent.
General manager Mike Gillis doesn’t have a problem with that.
“Your costs aren’t simply associated with the salary cap,” Gillis said during his lengthy session with the media on Thursday. “We came in here five years ago and we re-set things and changed a lot of things. And ... Read More …

UPDATE: President Kris Bulcroft is holding a meeting Friday at 1 p.m. in the Birch building. It was described to me as a meeting for employees but students are also planning to attend.
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An email from NDP Leader Adrian Dix has been making the rounds recently, offering hope to students and faculty opposed to the deep cuts proposed for Capilano University.
In the email, Dix urges the university’s board of governors to delay a ... Read More …

By Pamela Fayerman
Vancouver Sun
A century ago, an innovative New York surgeon deliberately injected live bacteria directly into his patients’ cancerous bone tumours to kickstart their immune systems.
More than 1,000 patients over 40 years got the bacterial concoctions prepared by Dr. William Coley, often referred to as the Father of Immunotherapy.
His results were mixed and methods inconsistent. Patients got fevers and infections after the innoculations. Some died. Yet the much-lauded Yale ... Read More …

All the major candidates in Richmond East say the dumping at 9360 Finn Road needs to stop. But few concrete ideas for how to achieve that have been forthcoming.
The property is being leased to Bill Jones Horticulture Inc., which is run by William Jones and David Johnston. The 13-hectare farm, which used to grow pumpkins, is now being used as a dumping ground for the construction of a farm road that would provide access ... Read More …

After 15 years as the executive chef overseeing Harry Kambolis’ C restaurant, Raincity Grill and Nu Souvlaki, Rob Clark decided it was time for a change. He left last October and he’ll be opening a seafood store, The Fish Counter, on Main St. some time in August.
He can take the credit for making Vancouver the strongest sustainable seafood city in Canada, setting examples for other cities. “I’d like to believe I’ve accomplished a lot ... Read More …

Health Canada insists there is not, but that hasn’t quelled the debate.
“A number of media reports have suggested that Wi-Fi could be associated with a variety of health concerns. Yet, there is no convincing scientific evidence that exposure to low-level radiofrequency (RF) energy from Wi-Fi causes adverse health effects in humans,” the federal department states on its website.
Still, some parents are concerned, and Terry Berting, president of the B.C. ... Read More …

Daylilies are happiest when planted where they will receive at least four hours of sun a day. The more sun they get the more blooms they produce. Dark colours (reds and purples) benefit from afternoon shade to preserve the colour.
– Leave your daylilies to get established for at least two to three years to get the best blooms possible. The plant usually takes the first year to establish itself, the second year to put ... Read More …

Pam Erikson’s love affair with daylilies began in 1987 when her husband, Tom, just happened to bring home a few pots of the old-fashioned fragrant pink classic, ‘Catherine Woodbury’. Pam took one look at it and fell in love with the whole genus there and then.
From that moment, she began collecting every daylily cultivar she could get her hands on.
Within a few years, she had hundreds of varieties; so many, in fact, that ... Read More …

All three major candidates in Vancouver-False Creek say affordable housing is one of their top priorities in this election. The Vancouver Sun recently reported that the number of household’s wait-listed for accommodation has increased 44.8 percent. Adding a sense of urgency to the situation is the fact that it is estimated that by 2014 the number of homeless on the street of Vancouver will reach a record high of 2,000 people.
“Especially here in False ... Read More …

Wonder why you keep getting those annoying robocalls?
It could be because more than 50 per cent of British Columbians have responded to them.
No wonder more than 40 per cent of people in this province get at least one robocall a week, if not more.
We only have ourselves to thank.
At least that’s would appear to be a conclusion of a recent Insights West online poll of 402 BC adults regarding automated calls ... Read More …

Marijuana has become an important issue in this provincial election. Questions about marijuana policy have been raised by the public over and over again, at all-candidates meetings across the province, and even during the televised debate.
Together with the replies we received from candidates, and other comments about marijuana made in the media, we have compiled this Sensible BC Voters Guide, to help you better understand where BC parties and candidates stand on the question ... Read More …

We now know which provinces and cities in Canada have the highest proportion of Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus, Jews, Muslims and non-religious.
B.C. and Ontario top some of these lists. And so do Squamish, B.C., Toronto and Vancouver.
The Vancouver Sun’s Chad Skelton has created some gangbuster charts out of Statistics Canada’s May 15th release of the National Household Survey on religion and ethnicity.
MY RELATED ANALYSIS: B.C. breaks records when it comes to religions ... Read More …

After a lengthy legal battle, teacher Michael Fountain has finally cleared his name.
B.C. Supreme Court ruled this week that Fountain was improperly reprimanded by the B.C. College of Teachers for events on his farm near Burns Lake in 2001.
Fountain, a Nechako Lakes teacher at the time, had fired a warning shot over the heads of his two sons after ordering them off his property. He was badly injured at the time because the ... Read More …